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(PRAIRIE FREIGHT-continued from page 338)
air-hose couplings between cars,
wave to the engineer, swing on to
moving cars and off again without
jarring a hair, and in a short time
have new trains ready to go out
to the busy centers of the nation.
In the story of Illinois, trains
such as these are vital. In the old
days the only way to send freight
from the points of production to
the points of consumption was to
prayerfully consign it to a wagon
train, a canal boat, a flatboat, or a
pack mule. If the shipment arrived, fine. If it didn't, that was
the fault of impossible roads, the
lack of law and order which permitted bandits to operate freely,
and usual bad weather west of the
Alleghenies.
When the railroads came into
Illinois, they conquered a muddy,
trackless wilderness with steel rails
that carried trains quickly and directly. No longer was it fastest to
follow the devious path of watercourses because the roads were
worse. Trains killed the canal
boat and flatboat business, but
made it possible for Illinois to become a highly successful agricultural, mining, and manufacturing
state. It could mine its magnificent coal and send it on its way,
hundreds of thousands of cars of
coal, to points where it was needed.
It could get its fluorite out to the
steel mills, could send its vast crop
of corn to the factories and mills,
could send peaches from Anna and
beef from Chicago all over the
nation by means of that new invention, the refrigerator car. The railroads made Illinois what it is today as much as its raw products
made it one of the leading states
in the nation.
But aside from the part the railroads play in keeping Illinois at
the peak of production, they are a
very pleasant part of the prairie
landscape. A train, especially an
old-fashioned steam locomotive
hauling a mixed freight, is meat
and drink to countless people of all
ages who love trains. The locomotives with their docile, dinosaurian elegance-black, steam loco-
motives with all the racket and
heat and bell-ringing anyone could
wish, or the sleek, stream-lined
diesel engines that bellow mournfully across the night-are one of
the delights of the machine age
which seldom has produced anything so satisfying.
343

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(PRAIRIE FREIGHT-continued from page 338)
air-hose couplings between cars,
wave to the engineer, swing on to
moving cars and off again without
jarring a hair, and in a short time
have new trains ready to go out
to the busy centers of the nation.
In the story of Illinois, trains
such as these are vital. In the old
days the only way to send freight
from the points of production to
the points of consumption was to
prayerfully consign it to a wagon
train, a canal boat, a flatboat, or a
pack mule. If the shipment arrived, fine. If it didn't, that was
the fault of impossible roads, the
lack of law and order which permitted bandits to operate freely,
and usual bad weather west of the
Alleghenies.
When the railroads came into
Illinois, they conquered a muddy,
trackless wilderness with steel rails
that carried trains quickly and directly. No longer was it fastest to
follow the devious path of watercourses because the roads were
worse. Trains killed the canal
boat and flatboat business, but
made it possible for Illinois to become a highly successful agricultural, mining, and manufacturing
state. It could mine its magnificent coal and send it on its way,
hundreds of thousands of cars of
coal, to points where it was needed.
It could get its fluorite out to the
steel mills, could send its vast crop
of corn to the factories and mills,
could send peaches from Anna and
beef from Chicago all over the
nation by means of that new invention, the refrigerator car. The railroads made Illinois what it is today as much as its raw products
made it one of the leading states
in the nation.
But aside from the part the railroads play in keeping Illinois at
the peak of production, they are a
very pleasant part of the prairie
landscape. A train, especially an
old-fashioned steam locomotive
hauling a mixed freight, is meat
and drink to countless people of all
ages who love trains. The locomotives with their docile, dinosaurian elegance-black, steam loco-
motives with all the racket and
heat and bell-ringing anyone could
wish, or the sleek, stream-lined
diesel engines that bellow mournfully across the night-are one of
the delights of the machine age
which seldom has produced anything so satisfying.
343